Updated — Midjourney Info Drop #12 — Week of April 27th, 2026
Midjourney Update News, Midjourney Office Hours Recap, Style Reference IDs (SREFs), and Moodboards
Updated — Midjourney Info Drop #12 — Week of April 27th, 2026
Midjourney Update News, Midjourney Office Hours Recap, Style Reference IDs (SREFs), and Moodboards
banner image for “Midjourney Info Drop #12 — Week of April 27th, 2026” — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Updated information on April 30th, 2026 — https://alpha.midjourney.com/updates/v8-1-updates
Hi everyone, we have a few V8.1 related updates today:
- V8.1 is now available on Discord as well as midjourney.com
- We’ve improved sharpness and image quality for V8.1! This is most noticeable for SREFs and Moodboards but you should notice across all images (especially HD)
- To save compute during a server transition, we’re making SD default for a bit. You can still switch to HD under settings panel or add
--hdafter your prompt. - The rating data you’ve giving us is continuing to help us improve quality for V8.2. If you want to keep helping us do ranking we’ve updated the images here: midjourney.com/rank-v8–1
Thank you and have fun!
This article continues my weekly posting with news and goodies for Midjourney Enthusiasts. The previous posts were called “Midjourney Weekly Roundups”.
News For Midjourney Fans and Enthusiasts
April 27, 2026 — High-res Rating Party
Copied from posting from David Holz at https://www.midjourney.com/updates
Hi everyone!
We’re preparing some major aesthetic updates for v8.1/8.2 and we want your help doing some image ranking to improve the model
Basically, we never did any ranking parties at full 2K resolution and in order to get the best possible HD pixels for everyone it would really help for us to rank some ‘raw’ images at the resolution from scratch
This will help tune the model to be more ‘natively’ HD/2K ‘beautiful’ and we think you’ll all appreciate the difference soon
Rank images here. Tell us which one you think is more ‘beautiful’. midjourney.com/rank-v8–1
Pro-tip: You can press the 1 key for the left image and 2 for the right image and 3 to skip.
Thanks again!
You can help the Midjourney team by ranking v8.1 images. Go to https://www.midjourney.com/rank-v8-1 and rank as many as you can! You may get 1 free fast hour of GPU time if you rank enough images to be in the top 2000 users!
Notes from the Midjourney Office Hours on Wednesday, April 29th, 2026
David began the Office Hours with his usual spiel about how they try to let everyone know the things that they are thinking of and currently working on. David indicated that he thought this would be a short Office Hours talk.
One of his high priority goals is to make version 8.1 live on the main Midjourney website (https://www.midjourney.com/explore) and on the Midjourney Discord Server (Currently v8.0 and v8.1 are only on the “alpha” website at https://alpha.midjourney.com/explore).
He also indicated that they are working with some updates. The first one he called “image quality improvements” and he thought this would be a small update and that it could occur in the next few days (I think is mainly to clear up blurriness in some of the 8.1 images and some hd images).
He also spoke about a little larger “aesthetics update” that they would probably label “8.2”. He thought this would occur within the next 2 weeks.
He did encourage users to keep ranking 8.1 images (see the message from 4/27/26 above). He thought that this information was particular helpful to the Midjourney team, and that they learn a lot from it.
After those incremental updates, the next big update would be elements of the new “web redesign” that is coming from the new designers in the near future.
He felt that after the website changes are in place that there would be improvements to the “mobile version stuff” as he put it.
They have been working on a refined dataset but he felt that it might not be incorporated into the main product until V9 (Midjourney version 9.0).
He said that they had made some progress toward a new version of the Omni-reference (OREF) and character reference (CREF) features at that they would probably appear in an updated version of the Image Editing feature. Eventually it would allow multiple character and object references with inpainting and outpainting included. He felt this would happen in the next month or two. (David mentioned a prototype that he had seen where you could upload images and then type “make this person walk this dog in” an added text-described location generated on the fly, and that it had worked really well.)
He hoped that the final versions of V8 would have all of Midjourney’s feature included and working well together. He said that this version of Midjourney would “feel unlike other systems”.
He spoke a little about some of the work that they have been doing with upscalers but that they had “slowed it down a bit” because they wanted the image quality and aesthetics to be stable first before developing a 4K model. It didn’t make sense to him to upscale images that were blurry or not beautiful.
He also felt that the current “hd” (2K resolution) “could be better”.
He spoke briefly about the new server upgrades that are currently coming online and wanting to have enough “compute” in place to start training V9 models.
As he has said previously, he feels they are close to announcing some of their secret “big” projects. They have a bunch of projects that the team is working on. The order that they will be introduced will probably be based on how ready each one is. David indicated that some of the projects may be confusing without seeing the big picture of all of the projects.
The earliest hardware projects will not be available for purchase yet but he felt that they were important to the grand direction for the company.
David said that they are spending a lot of money on servers right now, so they need to spend money on things that are better for humanity, advancing the human experience.
He did say that they have “8 big projects most of them are related to creativity” but that the first ones completed might be some of the “non-creativity” ones.
He did say he wanted their projects to “touch more people” and to be “really cool”. He liked the fact that they don’t have outside investors pushing them to get a return on their investments. He really wants to do “strictly good things”, and “positive human things”.
He felt the secret projects were “very coherent to their philosophy” as a company.
To bring things to a close he stressed that he wanted to keep building big models with new aesthetics, and that he felt V9 would “be a monster of a model”.
One other that he brought up toward the end of the Office Hours was that they might have a super fast draft mode as part of a V8 update. They have a model that they have been working on that could create a draft image “in 1 or 2 seconds” and that it might be as much as 3X cheaper than fast mode. (Sounds interesting — We shall see.)
Finally, David said that next week, the “website team” would be talking about the website changes.
Let’s continue with some lists of Midjourney goodies!
Midjourney v8.1 Alpha — Inspecting the SREF IDs 1 through 20
I have been using v8.1 more and more — I do like it although it isn’t perfect. Hopefully it will become the default version so that I don’t have to use the “alpha” site to test v8 versions and capabilities.
I do think that the Midjourney team has improved the display of Style References (SREFs). (And I do like the speed of v8 — It does seem to zoom through each image creation. Bravo!)
For this section, I thought I would look carefully at some of the “low” SREF ID number (numbers 1 through 20).
I purposely tried to make my text prompt vague (“a painting hanging on a wall in a museum”) so that each style could take over and have free reign in the image creation. Here is my basic prompt:
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --hdEach image is a v8.1 alpha image, in a wide aspect ratio (3:2), and the “high definition” resolution (2688 x 1792 pixels).
Here is one of the images created by the prompt above.
a sample image in the 3:2 aspect ratio and hd resolution of “a painting hanging on a wall in a museum” with no SREF ID — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
And here is the grid of images that the first run of the prompt created.
a grid of images created without using an SREF ID with the prompt “a painting hanging on a wall in a museum” — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
I created the images for the gallery below using the SREF IDs, and then I copied each grid of images. I dragged each one into Google Gemini (https://gemini.google.com/app) and asked Gemini to describe the images in “four words or less”. Gemini’s descriptions are posted with each image grid.
A Gallery of Image Grids Created by SREF IDs 1 Through 20 using v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #1: using SREF ID: 1
Title: Retro Surrealist Art (Gemini’s description)
Retro Surrealist Art — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 1 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #2: using SREF ID: 2
Title: Whimsical Rainbow Fantasy Art (Gemini’s description)
Whimsical Rainbow Fantasy Art — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 2 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #3: using SREF ID: 3
Title: Ornate Flowing Mythical Mural (Gemini’s description)
Ornate Flowing Mythical Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 3 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #4: using SREF ID: 4
Title: Elegant Classical Anime Portrait (Gemini’s description)
Elegant Classical Anime Portrait — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 4 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #5: using SREF ID: 5
Title: Ornate Golden Framed Portrait (Gemini’s description)
Ornate Golden Framed Portrait — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 5 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 1 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 2 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 3 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 4 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 5 --hdWall Painting Image Grid #6: using SREF ID: 6
Title: Comic Style Art (Gemini’s description)
Comic Style Art — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 6 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #7: using SREF ID: 7
Title: Glowing Abstract Light Art (Gemini’s description)
Glowing Abstract Light Art — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 7 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #8: using SREF ID: 8
Title: Colorful Panoramic Oil Mural (Gemini’s description)
Colorful Panoramic Oil Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 8 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #9: using SREF ID: 9
Title: Surreal Glowing Fantasy Paintings (Gemini’s description)
Surreal Glowing Fantasy Paintings — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 9 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #10: using SREF ID: 10
Title: Dark Anime Gallery Mural (Gemini’s description)
Dark Anime Gallery Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 10 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 6 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 7 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 8 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 9 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 10 --hdWall Painting Image Grid #11: using SREF ID: 11
Title: Stylized Illustrative Wall Mural (Gemini’s description)
Stylized Illustrative Wall Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 11 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #12: using SREF ID: 12
Title: Monochromatic Landscape Ink Sketches (Gemini’s description)
Monochromatic Landscape Ink Sketches — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 12 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #13: using SREF ID: 13
Title: Red Chinese Paper-Cut Mural (Gemini’s description)
Red Chinese Paper-Cut Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 13 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #14: using SREF ID: 14
Title: Dramatic Red Fantasy Mural (Gemini’s description)
Dramatic Red Fantasy Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 14 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #15: using SREF ID: 15
Title: Sepia Gallery Mural (Gemini’s description)
Sepia Gallery Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 15 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 11 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 12 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 13 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 14 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 15 --hdWall Painting Image Grid #16: using SREF ID: 16
Title: Abstract Neon-Pink Mural (Gemini’s description)
Abstract Neon-Pink Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 16 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #17: using SREF ID: 17
Title: Intricate Tapestry Mural (Gemini’s description)
Intricate Tapestry Mural — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 17 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #18: using SREF ID: 18
Title: Vibrant Graffiti-Style Portrait (Gemini’s description)
Vibrant Graffiti-Style Portrait — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: 19 — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #19: using SREF ID: 19
Title: Monochromatic Blue Art (Gemini’s description)
Monochromatic Blue Art — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
Wall Painting Image Grid #20: using SREF ID: 20
Title: Epic Anime Gallery Scene (Gemini’s description)
Epic Anime Gallery Scene — a wall painting image grid using SREF ID: — created by the author in Midjourney v8.1 Alpha
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 16 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 17 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 18 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 19 --hd
a painting hanging on a wall in a museum --ar 3:2 --sref 20 --hdNote: I have to admit that this group of SREF IDs is one of the most outstanding collections of images that I have ever seen.
Now on to the moodboards!
A Gallery of 22 Family Portrait Image Grids Created With Moodboard Codes from this Week’s Scraping of Midjourney Prompts
As I went through testing codes from my scrapings this week, I found a nice group of moodboards to share with you.
I created image grids for all of the moodboard codes in this section in both Midjourney V7.0 and V8.1 Alpha. I decided that I liked most of the V8.1 versions more than the V7.0 ones, so I have only posted the V8.1 versions in this gallery. You can use any of these moodboard codes with V7 if yoou wish.
Here are the image grids! I hope you enjoy them.
As you view each one, you may want to jot down the codes that you want to use, and any ideas that they give you. Have fun with them!
Group 1 — 6 Moodboard Codes
Family Portrait Image Grid #1: using moodboard code: 13o5lkp
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: 13o5lkp — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #2: using moodboard code: 34vav67
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: 34vav67 — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #3: using moodboard code: 4ucxg2n
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: 4ucxg2n — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #4: using moodboard code: 6us3ot8
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: 6us3ot8 — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #5: using moodboard code: 81b9hgu
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: 81b9hgu — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #6: using moodboard code: 96npt1x
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: 96npt1x — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 13o5lkp
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 13o5lkp
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 34vav67
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 34vav67
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 4ucxg2n
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 4ucxg2n
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 6us3ot8
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 6us3ot8
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 81b9hgu
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 81b9hgu
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 96npt1x
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 96npt1xGroup 2 — 6 more Moodboard Codes
Family Portrait Image Grid #7: using moodboard code: 9phcktn
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: 9phcktn — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #8: using moodboard code: 9vogvvf
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: 9vogvvf — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #9: using moodboard code: c2bx4iu
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: c2bx4iu — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #10: using moodboard code: dhyeiuj
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: dhyeiuj — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #11: using moodboard code: dvpjsen
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: dvpjsen — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #12: using moodboard code: ex4bcle
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: ex4bcle — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 9phcktn
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 9phcktn
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 9vogvvf
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile 9vogvvf
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile c2bx4iu
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile c2bx4iu
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile dhyeiuj
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile dhyeiuj
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile dvpjsen
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile dvpjsen
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile ex4bcle
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile ex4bcleGroup 3 — 6 more Moodboard Codes
Family Portrait Image Grid #13: using moodboard code: fy86vlx
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: fy86vlx — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #14: using moodboard code: gw15q8m
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: gw15q8m — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #15: using moodboard code: kgyrjvb
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: kgyrjvb — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #16: using moodboard code: lszx4wj
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: lszx4wj — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #17: using moodboard code: mp6jrvi
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: mp6jrvi — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #18: using moodboard code: ng3pus6
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: ng3pus6 — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile fy86vlx
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile fy86vlx
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile gw15q8m
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile gw15q8m
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile kgyrjvb
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile kgyrjvb
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile lszx4wj
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile lszx4wj
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile mp6jrvi
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile mp6jrvi
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile ng3pus6
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile ng3pus6Group 4 — 4 final Moodboard Codes
Family Portrait Image Grid #19: using moodboard code: qnv3g1g
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: qnv3g1g — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #20: using moodboard code: qz2smog
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: qz2smog — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #21: using moodboard code: sydwvj5
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: sydwvj5 — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
Family Portrait Image Grid #22: using moodboard code: wtrbs3w
a family portrait image grid using moodboard code: wtrbs3w — created by the author in Midjourney AI v8.1 Alpha
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile qnv3g1g
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile qnv3g1g
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile qz2smog
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile qz2smog
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile sydwvj5
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile sydwvj5
family portrait --v 8.1 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile wtrbs3w
family portrait --v 7.0 --ar 3:2 --s 320 --profile wtrbs3wThis was also an outstanding group of moodboard codes. I really enjoyed creating them and sharing them with you.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading my article.
I enjoyed putting this information together for you.
Please send me a response with your comments about what you liked or what you didn’t like. Or send me a question, Or let me know if you have a favorite SREF or moodboard. I read every response and I will respond back to you.
Make your voice and your ideas heard. I am listening!
Have a great week. Peace to you. David
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